In Jewelers Row in Philadelphia, Condo Plan Worries Preservationists

Toll Brothers City Living, a developer, is planning to make way for 80 new residential units on the 700 block of Sansom Street, the center of Jewelers Row.Credit
Ryan Collerd for The New York Times

PHILADELPHIA — Among the oldest diamond districts in the country, the Jewelers Row section of this historic city has been a part of the engagement stories of couples in the region for generations.

In the district, artisans and retailers have sold gems and jewelry since the mid-19th century, making it an unlikely cause for preservationists in the city, who in recent decades have focused on bringing new life to abandoned buildings.

A plan by Toll Brothers City Living, a developer, to make way for 80 new residential units on the 700 block of Sansom Street, the center of Jewelers Row, is challenging some of the district’s businesses and is shifting priorities for activists in the city.

Toll Brothers plans to demolish five three- and four-story buildings erected in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to build a 16-story condominium tower. It has promised to preserve the appearance of the street by building a new facade on the site of the demolished buildings. Demolition is scheduled to start in mid-2017, and construction is expected to take about two years.

“When we rebuild, we will maintain the existing cornice line and will also ensure the facades of the new commercial space are appropriate for the block,” Toll Brothers said in a statement. “It is our intention to protect not only the look and feel of Jewelers Row but also its culture and heritage.”

The developer’s plan has brought a cautious welcome from some nearby retailers, who hope for an influx of affluent new customers. In its proposal, Toll Brothers says it will build the tower 15 feet back from the existing line of buildings along the brick-paved street and put a loading dock and trash facilities on an adjoining block to help preserve the neighborhood’s character.

The plan has prompted passionate protests by local preservationists despite Toll Brothers’s assurances that it will take pains to conserve the district’s character. For one, the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, an advocacy group, says the plan would open a new hole in Philadelphia’s underprotected historic fabric at a time of sharply higher demand for developable land in the downtown area.

Margie Cedrone, who has a workshop and showroom at 702 Sansom Street, is grappling with the expense of moving her business.Credit
Ryan Collerd for The New York Times

“The Jewelers Row situation is definitely a wake-up call that our preservation, planning and zoning apparatus is out of sync with contemporary needs in a historic city that’s undergoing a building boom,” Mr. Steinke said. “There is a general recognition through the Jewelers Row issue that we are not taking care of our historic buildings nearly as well as we should.”

The project is another signal of soaring demand for residential and commercial retail space in a city that had decades of economic decline after a manufacturing slump, starting in the mid-20th century, but which is now seeing a renaissance in its central area.

According to Center City District, an economic development organization, the city will add 27.8 million square feet of residential, retail and commercial space in the downtown area by 2019, representing an investment of $8.5 billion.

The economic surge has lifted employment and reversed a steady decline in the city’s population, but it has also a created new challenges for preservationists seeking to defend assets like Jewelers Row.

“It’s a sea change for the city,” said Mr. Steinke, who estimated that 97 percent of the city’s buildings were unprotected by any historic designation. “For most of the last half century, we were fighting the forces of depopulation and decline, and so preservation was often about finding new uses for vacant buildings before we lost them.”

Now, buildings like those on Jewelers Row are being sought after by developers even though the spaces are economically active, Mr. Steinke said.

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“Jewelers Row is symbolic of a new reality, which is that occupied, functioning, taxpaying buildings with businesses and residences already in them for a century or more are now being targeted for developers for demolition and new construction,” he said.

FGS Gems, a gem cutter at 708 Sansom Street, is among the businesses that would be displaced by the redevelopment. Its building is scheduled for demolition after it was sold the developer for an undisclosed sum.

The owner of FGS Gems, Frank Schaffer, said that his business depended on its proximity to other artisans like jewelers, polishers and bead-stringers on the block, and that to move even a block away could threaten his livelihood, as well as the jobs of his three full-time and three part-time employees.

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“I will pretty much be forced into retirement,” said Frank Schaffer, the owner of FGS Gems, which is among the businesses that would be displaced by the redevelopment.Credit
Ryan Collerd for The New York Times

“It’s this wonderful meshing of businesses where I work in close conjunction with every one of the jewelers, and if I’m not on the street, it won’t happen,” said Mr. Schaffer, 52. “I will pretty much be forced into retirement.”

Mr. Schaffer, who pays $6,200 a month for 1,800 square feet of ground-floor retail and workshop space as well as a basement apartment, said that he had been offered 2,000 square feet of space elsewhere on the 700 block of Sansom Street but that it was not suitable because the price was too high, it lacked air conditioning and it was not in move-in condition.

A few doors away, Margie Cedrone strings pearls and designs necklaces in her second-floor workshop and showroom, Margie Cedrone Pearls, Etc., at 702 Sansom Street. She rents the space and is considering the realities of moving her business, which she has run from three premises on Jewelers Row for the last 33 years. “I’m upset because I have to move, and it’s going to be a big expense,” she said.

Ms. Cedrone, also 52, said she was more concerned about the uncertainty and disruption of moving than about any threat to the history of Jewelers Row from the redevelopment project. “It’s our livelihood,” she said. “It’s hard to change when you’re my age and older.”

Other merchants in the vicinity are optimistic that the new condominiums will bring new customers.

Hy Goldberg, chief executive of Safian & Rudolph Jewelers and president of the Philadelphia Jewelers’ Row Association, says most of the owners of the approximately 300 businesses there think the development will be good for business but also want the developer to preserve the character of the street.

“Everybody appreciates the potential if we maintain the historic district,” said Mr. Goldberg, whose building is not one of those scheduled for demolition.

Roberto Pupo, who had owned Mr. Schaffer’s building and the adjacent building at 710 Sansom Street for the last 10 years, declined to disclose the sale price he agreed on with Toll Brothers and said the sale of both buildings was complete.

The city’s zoning board last week declined an appeal against the development by the Preservation Alliance, which said that the project’s application had not provided enough information for officials to issue a zoning permit and that officials had posted a zoning notification on only one of the five buildings. Mr. Steinke of the Preservation Alliance said he was deciding whether to appeal.

On Oct. 21, a panel of the city’s Historical Commission will hear the alliance’s application for a historic designation for two of the buildings.

Correction: October 13, 2016

An article on the Square Feet page on Wednesday about redevelopment in the Jewelers Row section of Philadelphia misstated part of the name of an economic development organization in the city. It is Center City District, not Center City Philadelphia.

A version of this article appears in print on October 12, 2016, on Page B4 of the New York edition with the headline: Condo Stirs Preservation Worries in Philadelphia. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe